Core Services

Explore the following range of services – both the core ones and the supporting ones – and you will see that we focus on the things that are important to the success of every organisation: vision, strategy, alignment, communication, and excellence.

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Vision and Strategy

Having a clear picture of where you are going is important for any organisation, public, private, or voluntary. Translating this picture into a set of real and tangible activities that will take you towards realising that vision is essential. Aligning a suite of change initiatives, whether they be large programmes or small projects, to the overarching target direction is key.

Parachute Consulting provide a ‘critical friend’ role in the development of a vision, supportively challenging the vision to ensure that the organisation understands what it is aiming for.

We also help organisations to translate their vision into a clear delivery strategy, an initial business plan, and a set of change initiatives.

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Innovation and Innovativeness

At its simplest, innovation is about change; the successful exploitation of new concepts in products, processes, and practices that will change, for example, the effectiveness of a business or the dimensions of a market.

This, though, only considers innovation in a singular sense: the introduction of an idea. It provides no light on how numerous ideas can be realised in a way that does not see the organisation in a constant state of disruption.

Business innovation is about having mechanisms for understanding the impact that an idea will have on an organisation, its competition, and its markets and being able to implement those ideas in an efficient and cost-effective way. It also means having the environment to spawn, recognise, and develop ideas in the first place.

Parachute Consulting have a deep understanding of innovation processes and how to make and organisation more innovative, supported by a range of tools and techniques.

The report ‘Understanding Innovation – A Parachute Consulting Guide’ is available to download – you can find out more here.

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Knowledge Management

Knowledge Management is a large subject and one that is often misunderstood and so not capitalised on by organisations. Based on the importance of information – a component of knowledge – as mentioned in the Business – IT Alignment service, ensuring that your knowledge is managed, controlled, and exploited is essential for any organisation concerned with managing its costs.

Parachute Consulting have a range of tools and techniques that help to identify an organisation’s knowledge management needs, identifying areas for improvement and focus on delivering measurable change that will reduce the cost of managing knowledge and information as well as presenting opportunities for further exploiting the knowledge that the organisation has.

The acclaimed report ‘Understanding Knowledge Management – A Parachute Consulting Guide,’ which contains a number of case studies from across the public sector, can be found here.

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Business - IT Alignment

The importance of recognising information as a vital business asset cannot be overstated. As such, the alignment between the business and IT parts of an organisation is a crucial one.

The role of CIO has become ever more popular in both the private and public sectors in the UK, but how many of these people are actually the CITO? Is the focus really on the information or the management and support of the infrastructure?

The business also needs to know that the IT organisation is working towards the visions and goals of the business. Equally, IT needs to know where the business is heading and what support it requires. Without this alignment, the business will not be able to realise its goals (especially as IT becomes ever more ubiquitous) and IT will create projects for itself, further reducing its effectiveness.

Parachute Consulting provide clear advice, guidance, and hands-on support to help organisations become and stay more aligned.

Other Services and Capabilities

Portfolio Management

Understanding the mix of projects and programmes that the business and IT need to run is essential if goals are to be met. Developing approaches for establishing and managing projects is essential if costs are to be contained.

Portfolio Management includes structures and approaches that enable organisations to plan and manage their projects.

Parachute Consulting help organisations to establish and run valuable Portfolio Management functions that focus on delivering change and benefits for the business.

Programme & Project Design and Management

Planning and shaping are vitally important and they need to be supported by successful delivery.

Parachute Consulting help clients to determine the structure of the change projects and programmes that will deliver identified benefits. To help our clients succeed, we therefore provide both advice and resource for programme and project management.

Organisational Governance

Having the right governance mechanisms is essential for any organisation, especially those that embrace a programme and project delivery culture. Yet so often governance structures seem to restrict and stifle change rather than drive it forward.

Parachute Consulting help organisations to review their governance structures, determine what mechanisms are actually needed, and then work to establish them.